Stormcrow's Hobby Farm

[NanaK]

Ours is often damp. We could dry it out by running a dehumidifier for about 5+ months a year, but that gets pricey. I run it at times in the most humid parts of the summer.

This is the year we're going to get all the junk/crap out of the basement and make it useable space. (It could happen...) Hubby built a darkroom down there, and is having a lot of fun printing B&W 4x5 negatives.

Basements can be life savers in case of tornados and other high wind events.

There is something called a "Michigan basement." They can be gross, and are the reason there are companies that specialize in making them into useable space, or at least sealing them so that they aren't gross.
https://www.ecotelligenthomes.com/what-is-a-michigan-basement/

I have seen a few wanna be basements here built on the side of a hill. They are still mostly above ground, more of a split level home. They tend to stay damp with the odors that go with that.

Water table is so high here. For example, I had to bury an old dog that passed. DH was working and I did not want to wait. I was upset, she had been my baby for 18 years. I dug and dug, crying. Before I realized I was so deep I had to stand in the hole. Looked down, water was trickling into the hole.

Best we can do for a tornado is a bathroom in the center of home with no outside wall. That was a requirement of ours when we chose plans.

 

[Sally PB]

From your other thread, since it's more on topic here...

As for the black toms, I've grown several types. Really disliked Cherokee Purple and Black from Tula and I think Purple Prince. Was about to give up on them but found Black Krim. It has a real twang to it we like but it is very different from Roma and San Marzano. We do like Amish Paste and Anna Russian. So did the nematodes. May go back to it next year along with the Krims.

Cherokee Purple did so poorly for me that I can't even say if I like them. Ditto with Black from Tula that I tried many years ago. @NanaK, I'm hanging all my purple tomato hopes on the Black Krim that you sent me!

 

[Sally PB]

@U_Stormcrow, how will you cool your green house, especially this time of year?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

@U_Stormcrow, how will you cool your green house, especially this time of year?

Haahahahaaaa. I won't. Both ends will be screened and left open. I'm running it parallel to prevailing winds, for good or ill. I may end up venting along the barn roof. This is a build first, fix the engineering later kind of project... The key is keeping the bugs off three months out of the year and protecting from freeze the fourth.

I have power, I could do a forced air system, or use solar to pull water from the pond in a closed loop cooler - though the pond volume isn't high.

re: black/purple tomatoes.
I've tried Black Prince, the Krim (mine were badly mishapen), another Russian of some sort, and maybe the Bonnie?

 

[Sally PB]

We saw something on Homestead Rescue that we were going to implement with our green house, but never did. It was a vent at the floor that allowed air from underground/outside the green house to come in, and vent at the ceiling to allow the hot air out. Based on the chimney effect.

I have the seed starting equipment in the green house now; nothing growing, so it's all closed up. I took some more stuff up there today to get it off the front porch. It was 113 degrees in there.

I hope that killed off the wasps that have found their way in.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

We saw something on Homestead Rescue that we were going to implement with our green house, but never did. It was a vent at the floor that allowed air from underground/outside the green house to come in, and vent at the ceiling to allow the hot air out. Based on the chimney effect.

I have the seed starting equipment in the green house now; nothing growing, so it's all closed up. I took some more stuff up there today to get it off the front porch. It was 113 degrees in there.

I hope that killed off the wasps that have found their way in.

That is something I can do, easily. I *maybe* dug too low with the tractor while levelling the ground at one end. Maybe.

Thank you for sharing.